1945
Stanly, in company with Charles Ausburne (DD-570), Foote (DD-511), Converse (DD-509), and Sterett (DD-407), sortied from San Pedro Bay on 4 January 1945 and escorted the landing forces to the San Fabian and Lingayen areas of northern Luzon. Until the 27th, she patrolled the transport areas and stood radar picket duty for the assault forces while the Japanese launched the first major kamikaze onslaught of the war. By 31 January, she was back off Leyte and, four days later, entered Ulithi. On 8 February, she stood out for Saipan and arrived on the 10th. Stanly patrolled off Saipan for six days; then off Iwo Jima from 16 February until 13 March. She returned to Saipan for logistics on 15 March and weighed anchor on the 17th. She put in at Ulithi the next day and stayed until 27 March, undergoing repairs. At the completion of repairs, she headed for Okinawa, where she arrived late on the 31st.
For the first 11 days of April, Stanly moved from station to station around Okinawa on radar picket duty. On the 12th, as the "Divine Wind" again rose to gale force, she was on station north of the island. Cassin Young (DD-793) had just been crashed by a kamikaze, and Stanly was speeding to her station. Soon enemy planes were swarming around her like angry bees, and she maneuvered radically to avoid their deadly sting. In the meantime, Stanly's fighter director team took charge of the stricken destroyer's combat air patrol. Under their direction, the friendly fighters whittled away at the attackers, splashing six Aichi D3A "Val" naval dive bombers in rapid succession.
American fighters and kamikazes swirled above Stanly in a grand melee. Suddenly, out of the maelstrom of planes, a rocket-powered Yokosuka MXY-7 Ohka piloted flying bomb plunged toward her at a speed in excess of 500 knots (900 km/h). Her assailant's great speed made countermeasures impossible; and so, Stanly absorbed the kamikaze's impact on the starboard side of her bow, five feet above the waterline. Fortunately, the warhead punched clear through the hull of Stanly without detonating, passed out her port side, and exploded in the water close aboard. Within minutes of the first attack, another Ohka whisked over the ship and snatched her ensign from its gaff in passing. It skipped across the water like a flat stone, then disintegrated.
Soon after the second Ohka's pass, Stanly was ordered to close the transports at Hagushi. On her way, she experienced her third near-fatal encounter of the day when a Mitsubishi Zero "Zeke" tried to bomb and crash into her in a single pass. Stanly's luck held as the bomb fell short and the plane overshot. Miraculously, her total casualties for all the day's action amounted to only three wounded sailors. Late that night, she entered "Busted Ship Bay" at Kerama Retto for repairs.
After 10 days at Kerama, she returned to Okinawa for an anticlimactic period of radar picket duty. She departed with an Ulithi-bound convoy on 5 May and arrived in the lagoon four days later. The destroyer underwent further repairs and exited the lagoon on the 28th for gunnery exercises. During these drills, the barrel blew off her number 5 gun, killing two coxswains. Ironically, Stanly's only mortal casualties of the war occurred during training.
The destroyer moved on to Apra Harbor, Guam, to repair the damaged gun mount. She arrived on 3 June and remained for over two and one-half months undergoing extended availability. She was still there when hostilities ended on 15 August.
On the 20th, Stanly weighed anchor, stopped at Eniwetok and at Pearl Harbor, and entered Mare Island Naval Shipyard on the 30th. On 22 September, while still undergoing overhaul, Stanly was assigned to the Pacific Reserve Fleet.
At the completion of overhaul, she steamed down the coast to San Diego to enter the Reserve Fleet, still in commission. Stanly was decommissioned in October 1946 and shifted her berth to Long Beach, Calif., in January 1947. She remained in the Pacific Reserve Fleet until 1 December 1970 when her name was struck from the Navy list. Her hulk was sold in February 1972 to Chou's Iron & Steel Co., Ltd., for scrapping.
Stanly earned nine battle stars for her World War II service, and the Presidential Unit Citation (US) as part of DesRon 23 the "Little Beavers", for its "extraordinary heroism in action against enemy Japanese forces during the Solomon Islands Campaign, from 1 November 1943, to 23 February 1944"—the only destroyer squadron so honored.
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